Add the following lines to local.conf: DEBUG_BUILD = "1" require conf/multilib.conf MULTILIBS = "multilib:lib32" DEFAULTTUNE_virtclass-multilib-lib32 = "x86" $ bitbake icu make[2]: Entering directory `/buildarea/lyang1/testdebug/tmp/work/core2-64-poky-linux/icu/53.1-r0/build/tools/genbrk' x86_64-poky-linux-g++ -m64 -march=core2 -mtune=core2 -msse3 -mfpmath=sse --sysroot=/buildarea/lyang1/testdebug/tmp/sysroots/qemux86-64 -O -fno-omit-frame-pointer -g -feliminate-unused-debug-types -pipe -fvisibility-inlines-hidden -W -Wall -pedantic -Wpointer-arith -Wwrite-strings -Wno-long-long --std=c++0x -Wl,-O1 -Wl,--hash-style=gnu -o ../../bin/genbrk genbrk.o -L../../lib -licutu -L../../lib -licui18n -L../../lib -licuuc -L../../stubdata -licudata -lpthread -ldl -lm genbrk.o: file not recognized: File truncated collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status make[2]: *** [../../bin/genbrk] Error 1
$ bitbake icu -ccleansstate && bitbake icu will make it work again.
verified that they work now